Skateboarder grabs and grinds in new home
Print Edition
Bobby Male didn’t expect that he would be in Shanghai for over nine years. The Birmingham-native skateboard coach first came to the city in 2006 with some fellow coaches who were invited by an entertainment company to give a series of performances over two months.
“I was 18 years old, and that trip broadened my vision, and helped me to make a decision — skateboarding is for fun, but it can also become a career,” Male says.
Male liked Shanghai and considered it affordable.
“A steamed meat dumpling only cost 0.5 yuan, and the rent was about 1,000 yuan (US$166.67) per month. With some early savings, I could make ends meet in the city.”
After his two-month job ended, Male decided to return to Shanghai a few months later. He promptly hired a local teacher to learn Chinese.
“The majority of skateboarders in Shanghai were still Chinese, and I had to master the language to communicate with them and find myself a place in the circle,” says Male who can do a variety of tricks like grinds, grabs and 360s.
Like other foreigners who want to make a living in the city, Male taught English. However, he soon lost interest when he realized the institutes didn’t care about the teaching quality.
“They just wanted an English-speaking foreigner and it seemed that every outlander could take up the job, which wasn’t attractive to me,” he says.
Male’s teaching career took a twist when he was doing some tricks at a skateboard park and was spotted by an expatriate family.
The father was from South Africa, mother from Taiwan. Their daughters were interested in the sport and Male was hired to be their teacher.
More kids and parents soon followed and gradually Male earned a good reputation and more clients.
Most of his students are between the ages of six and eight, Male says, adding that he organizes monthly competitions for them. He also likes to spend some of his weekends with children at a welfare center in Hongkou District, together with other foreign volunteers.
“The most recent experience was helping the kids brush their teeth,” he says.
Male first picked up skateboarding as a hobby at the age of 14 when a new skateboard park opened in his hometown of Birmingham. He asked his dad to drop him off there on his way to work only to find that the park wasn’t going to open until the next day.
Without a cellphone, Male couldn’t call his father back. He asked the park staff to let him stay. He helped with some cleaning and other chores and was paid US$10.
From then on he kept going back, slowly learning a variety of skateboard tricks from others. Eventually he became an amateur teacher and ended up in Shanghai.
Male says he also enjoys making funny short films, though not necessarily skateboard related. He has more than 340,000 followers on miaopai.com, a short clip-sharing platform.
He also organized summer camps for his students, taking them to Birmingham to stay at his parent’s house, visit the skateboard park, as well as a trip to London.
Male says being a skateboard teacher helped him build up patience and communication skills.
“Children are restless,” he says. “You need to find a teaching method that allows them to enjoy the sport and learn skills at the same time.”
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